This summer, Tottenham became the first Premier League club ever to fail to make a single new signing in the transfer window.
However, this may be a blessing in disguise, because, as football fans know, not every big money buy fulfils his true potentials.
We take a look at five Tottenham signings who never realised their full potential in a white shirt in recent years.
Paulinho
A name that I’m sure most Spurs fans knew was going to pop up in this list at some point.
The highly-rated Brazilian joined Tottenham for a then club-record fee of £17m in July 2013.
Paulinho was named man of the match in his first ever game in a Lilywhite shirt, and the initial signs were very promising for the box-to-box midfielder.
But how the mighty fell. Paulinho’s Tottenham career fizzled out with a whimper, like a candle on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke.
Sub-par performance after sub-par performance followed through his first and second season in North London, as the midfielder managed to amount 67 appearances for Tottenham, scoring 10 goals.
His journey in N17 will forever be memorialised by the spoof highlight reels on YouTube.
Paulinho was eventually sold to Guangzhou Evergrande in China for just under £10m but did later pop up for a strange cameo season in Barcelona’s midfield.
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
